Many key innovations that have marked the history of the mechanical wristwatch were developed for the military during the first half of the last century. Requiring the highest possible quality from their instruments, the specialist forces that often employed them whilst operating in extreme conditions made use many of the functions that are, today found in luxury sports and divers watches.
The new Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Titanio from Officine Panerai brings together features which are military in their origins. They appear as two contemporary watches with a strong sporting characters and with great personalities and the purest Panerai identity.
As is the case with all Panerai models, the main point of reference is of course that of the sea. Professional underwater models that are water-resistant to a pressure of 30 bar ( an equivalent depth of about 300 meters), the new Luminor Submersible 1950 watches have a 47mm in diameter Luminor 1950 cases. The iconic design of the case, is immediately recognizable by its device protecting the winding crown whose historic origins go back to the model created by Officine Panerai in 1956 for the Egyptian Navy: the unidirectional rotating bezel for calculating dive-time.
Two versions of this are available: one with a bezel made entirely of brushed Titanium (PAM00614) and the other with a special bezel of Titanium to which a matte black ceramic insert has been applied, with linear markers and dots in titanium (PAM00615). Both models are supplied with a black rubber strap, soft and durable, ideal for an underwater watch and personalized with the OP logo in Panerai blue.
The other function of the new Luminor Submersible 1950 originating from the military in the 1930s is that of the flyback chronograph. Also known as the ‘retour en vol’, this function enables the chronograph hand that is already moving to be zeroed and instantly restarted by a single pressure, without it being necessary first to stop the hand and then to return it to zero. In the Luminor Submersible 1950 the push button which controls the stopping and starting of the chronograph is at ten o’clock, while the push button at eight o’clock operates the flyback function and zeros the chronograph hand after it has been stopped.
To ensure the simplest and clearest possible reading, the chronograph minutes and seconds hands are both positioned centrally on the central dial and distinguished from each other by being different colors: the seconds hand is blue while the minute hand is rhodium plated, advancing instantaneously with a jump every sixty seconds. The colors chosen for the hands enhance the minimalist design of the black dial, with its dot-shaped hour markers and simple figures, and the small continuous seconds counter at nine o’clock. The two models have different elements at three o’clock: the model with the titanium bezel has the date window in this position while the model with ceramic bezel has the chronograph hour counter there.
The movement of the Luminor Submersible 1950is the P.9100 caliber, the first automatic chronograph caliber developed and made in the Panerai manufacture in Neuchâtel. Many details bear witness to its sophisticated construction: the vertical clutch, the column wheel, the two spring barrels connected in series which guarantee a power reserve of three days, the oscillating weight which winds the spring barrels as it moves in both directions, and the variable inertia balance which oscillates at 28,800 vibrations per hour.
To ensure the greatest accuracy when adjusting the watch, the mechanism has the device for stopping the balance wheel and the system which enables the hour hand to be moved backwards or forwards in jumps of precisely one hour, without interrupting the movement of the minute hand. The movement consists of 302 components and it is 13¾ lignes in diameter and 8.15 mm thick.
Both versions of the Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Titanio - 47mm are supplied with a spare strap, a screwdriver and the special tool for changing the strap.
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